1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical devices and more particularly to an optical device that, when inserted into a collimated beam of light, generates an array or a line of multiple collimated beams.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional methods of generating multiple beams include either building a bank of multiple single beam generators or building a multiple beam generator with multiple pinhole sources in its focal plane. Both of these methods are expensive to produce and are not very accurate. The second method requires an optical lens design that maintains image quality over a field-of-view large enough to accommodate multiple pinhole sources. Because of the above, there is a requirement to provide a system that requires only on-axis image quality in the single beam source.